Inman

Inman Review: Kagent gives you a quick way to digitally manage open houses

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Kagent is an open house registration and survey solution.

Platforms: Browser, mobile-first
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokerages

Top selling points:

  • 10-second setup
  • QR-code-based form access
  • Sign-in incentive giveaway
  • Live seller updates
  • Emphasizes buyer feedback

Top concern:

Kagent lacks any key industry integrations, but that should get remedied with time.

What you should know

Open houses remain vital marketing tools for agents, and Kagent is software that provides agents a way to quickly capture attendee information and responses to the open house.

There are many of these products on the market, and every agent who handles open houses should consider Kagent, or one of its competitors, for making open house marketing more efficient and for ensuring sellers understand its effectiveness.

Besides having one of the sharpest names for a proptech I’ve heard in some time, Kagent is also a great example of how a well-designed user experience can speed adoption.

Even through the drag of a video share, I watched Kagent’s founder create a new open house and sign-in form in 10 seconds. It takes merely a street address, date and basic details.

The app generates a QR code linking to a sign-in form for the property, accompanied by an $500 giveaway incentive that Kagent covers. State-by-state laws on giveaways vary, so cover your bases, but the appeal is based on guessing the closing price of the house.

Visitors scan the code from a tablet, open laptop or printed signs around the property. The form can be customized but asks the general stuff important for staying in touch with people after they leave.

In what I think is a smart touch, the form does not default to asking about a person’s agent representation.

The question can be added to Kagent’s forms, but really, I’ve never seen the point. Any person in an open house should be treated the same regardless of representation, and moreover, any buyer rep not able to keep their buyer should be held responsible for losing them, not the listing agent who happens to be holding an open house. It’s really between the buyer agent and the buyer, not the listing agent.

A five-question feedback survey is sent to the buyer’s email within 10 minutes, in which the giveaway incentive is delivered, as well as a call to action to set an appointment with the listing agent via Calendly, Hubspot or MixMax, should they be seeking representation.

Sellers can be linked to a live update feed via email or through a URL, allowing them to monitor registrants as their agent does. This is a nice way for the seller to stay informed, even beyond the cameras they’re likely watching.

The agent’s back-end is as streamlined as the front, allowing users to see a list of registrants, who’s filled out the forms, add, edit and delete survey questions and download a .CSV file for CRM upload later.

A quick point about the “guess the closing price” giveaway: There’s more to it than being a sign-in incentive.

Once Kagent gains enough traction, having the market’s direct response to what a home may close for is actually quite valuable. When juxtaposed with the actual close price, agents can learn how knowledgeable the market really is about the cost of homes.

What’s more, let’s say after a few years of guessed price data, Kagent could leverage it for marketing purposes, encouraging agents to use it to help control seller expectations or as a verification that “Kagent open houses” are the best way to market your home. That sort of stuff.

Overall, the user interface is sharp at each function and the ramp-up to use is very minimal. It’s been designed to allow anyone to digitally manage an open house in very little time. It also works with Zapier for building data bridges into your CRM of choice.

Kagent openly acknowledges that Spacio and Open Home Pro and others are out there and are good products. Smartly, however, the company believes it’s ultimately competing against pen and paper. And that’s a fact.

Kagent’s lack of recognition of virtual open houses and solutions for managing them might be its ultimate drawback. But it was barely out of beta when I sat through a demo, so I suspect they’ll get covered what needs to be covered as it gains traction.

Pricing is pretty flexible, with multiple tiers that offer various features, including a free version that could offer a good way to test it for the long-term. You will have to pay up a level for the survey features.

Nevertheless, it’s worth a look for all those agents longing for pre-pandemic property marketing. Additionally, open houses can be a much better way for agents to earn new leads given the degree of buyer competition these days. Instead of waiting for faceless digital leads, hold an event. Imagine the turnout.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe

Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.